Econometrics analysis of the Relationship between Climate Change and Economic Growth in Selected West African Countries (Published)
Linkages between Climate Change, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction have become increasingly most popular in local and international communities. This is due to the fact that we are currently facing pressing issues about climate change and poverty reduction effects in our planet. In this paper an empirical testing of the effects of Climate Change, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction was carried out. Four equation models were developed to test the relationship amongst them. Panel estimation of 13 West African countries with similar climate, economic growth and poverty status from 1969 to 2016 were selected from World Development Indicator (WDI). Panel estimation methods of fixed effect, random effect, and panel unit root test-fisher type with trend and constant were applied. From the results, shows that economic growth has a negative and highly significant effect on the growth rate of poverty in the selected West African countries. The growth rate of economics on the growth rate of food security is slightly significant. Using growth rate of economics as dependent variable, the result shows that growth rate of poverty is highly significant. The population living in rural areas is significant with growth of poverty and highly significant with growth rate of food security in West African countries under study. The results reveal that growth rate of economics is significant and positive coefficient on the growth rate of climate change. Growth rate of food security on the growth rate of climate change statistically significant and associated with negative sign.
Keywords: Food Security, Growth Rate, Hausman test, Poverty Reduction, panel estimation